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Packaging Corporation of America produces containerboard, uncoated freesheet (paper that doesn't contain pulp), and other packaging materials.

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The Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) is one of the largest manufacturers in North America of paper and paper products that are corrugated, or strengthened through ridges and folds. Through a series of mergers, PCA emerged in its modern incarnation in 1959 and went public in 2000. The company manages both paper mills and cardboard factories, among other facilities. PCA’s customers are distributors and retailers, including Office Depot and OfficeMax.

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Packaging Corp. of America (PKG): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Packaging Corp. of America

packaging corp. of america

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Packaging Corporation of America's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Results Conference Call. Your host today will be Mark Colzan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PCA. Upon conclusion of his narrative, there will be a Q and A session. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr.

Colzan. Please proceed when you're ready.

Thank you, Jamie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for participating in Packaging Corporation of America's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings release conference call. Again, I'm Mark Colzan, Chairman and CEO of PCA. And with me on the call today is Tom Hassfurther, President of PCA Bob Munday, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin the call as usual with an overview of the first quarter results, and then I'm going to turn the call over to Tom and Bob will provide further details.

After that, I'll wrap things up and then we'll be glad to take questions. Yesterday, we reported first quarter net income of $2.00 $4,000,000 or $2.26 per share. Excluding special items, first quarter twenty twenty five net income was $2.00 $8,000,000 or $2.31 per share compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty four net income of $155,000,000 or $1.72 per share. First quarter net sales were $2,100,000,000 in 2025 and $2,000,000,000 in 2024. Total company EBITDA for the first quarter, excluding special items, was $421,000,000 in 2025 and $333,000,000 in 2024.

First quarter net income included special items expenses of $05 per share, primarily for the closure costs related to Corrugated Products facilities. Details of special items for both the first quarter of twenty twenty five and 2024 were included in the schedules that accompanied the earnings press release. Excluding the special items, the $0.59 per share increase in first quarter twenty twenty five earnings compared to the first quarter twenty twenty four was driven primarily by higher prices and mix of $0.78 per share and volume $0.27 per share in the Packaging segment. Higher prices and mix in the Paper segment, 0.1 lower freight and logistics expenses, point one and lower scheduled outage costs, zero one. Partially offsetting these improvements, operating costs came in about where we expected at $0.37 above last year's level.

Although we did see lower fiber prices during the quarter, we continue to experience inflation across most of our cost structure. Our focus on operational efficiency, cost reduction initiatives, capital project execution have helped minimize the negative impact of the persistent inflation. In addition, Paper segment volume was lower by $02 Depreciation and other expenses were higher by $03 per share. Our tax rate was higher by $04 per share, and we had higher interest expense of $03 per share. The results were $0.10 above the first quarter guidance of $2.21 per share, primarily due to higher prices and mix in the Packaging segment.

Looking at the Packaging business. EBITDA excluding special items in the first quarter of twenty twenty five of $4.00 $9,000,000 with sales of $2,000,000,000 resulted in a margin of 21% versus last year's EBITDA of $326,000,000 and sales of $1,800,000,000 or an 18% margin. Excellent margin improvement for the quarter was driven by sound execution in our price increase implementation, solid box shipment volume, record containerboard production and outstanding operational performance at our mills and box plants. We are also able to end the quarter at targeted inventory levels, which puts us in great position compared to last year's historically low inventories. Our employees continued to deliver on numerous cost reduction initiatives, efficiency improvements, integration and optimization enhancements and capital project benefits to not only minimize the negative impact from the persistent inflation we currently see across most of our cost structure, but also to capitalize on our longer term strategic goals.

I'll now turn it over to Tom, who's going to provide further details on containerboard sales on

Thanks, Mark. The disciplined implementation of the price increases for liner, medium and boxes, according to our announcements, was a significant contributor to this year's first quarter results. Domestic containerboard and corrugated products prices and mix were $0.72 per share above the first quarter of twenty twenty four and up $0.41 per share compared to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. Export containerboard prices were up $06 per share versus last year's first quarter and down $01 per share compared to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four.

Although we began to see some pullback in the middle of the quarter related to the uncertainty created by trade tensions around the world, box demand was solid and exceeded a very strong comparative period in last year's first quarter. Total volume and shipments per day in our corrugated products plants were up 2.5% versus last year's first quarter when per day shipments were up 11% over the previous year. Also, in addition to supplying record containerboard production volume to meet the integrated needs of our box plants, outside sales volume of containerboard was 30,000 tons above the first quarter of twenty twenty four and six thousand tons above the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. As we look ahead to the second quarter, we expect the economic uncertainty to continue weighing on demand. However, we still believe the box shipments will be higher than the first quarter and above last year's tough comp, which was up 9.2% over the previous year.

Regarding the strategic capital plan for our converting plants, I'd like to mention that in March, we had a successful startup of our new state of the art, high efficiency, full line box plant in Glendale, Arizona. The 365,000 square foot plant was started up ahead of schedule, significantly below budget, and all equipment was operational during the first week of production. Previously, we were limited in our ability to serve and grow with our customers in this key marketplace due to the plant's limited capability and aging equipment that required us to pull from several different locations, some of which were quite far away geographically. Our new plant will increase box capacity by almost 2,000,000,000 square feet, significantly increase productivity on a unit labor hour basis, reduce costs and allows us to optimize our service capabilities not only in the Phoenix area, but also in the growing markets in Las Vegas and portions of California. I'll now turn it back to Mark.

Thanks, Tom. Looking at the Paper segment, EBITDA, excluding special items in the first quarter, was $40,000,000 with sales of $154,000,000 or a 26% margin compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty four EBITDA of $41,000,000 and sales of $164,000,000 or 25% margin. The employees of our paper business continued to deliver excellent customer service and remain focused on efficient and cost effective operations in order to deliver outstanding margins for the quarter. Similar to the industry, sales volume was 7% below

volume Paper prices and mix were 2% above the first quarter of twenty twenty four and flat versus the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. Our previously announced price increase began to be implemented during the quarter for all office printing and converting grades. Prices have begun to move up according to the terms of our customers, and we expect to begin seeing higher prices in the second quarter results. I'll now turn it over

Thanks, Mark. Cash provided by operations set a first quarter record totaling $339,000,000 and free cash flow was also a first quarter record at $191,000,000 The primary payments of cash during the quarter included capital expenditures of $148,000,000 and dividend payments of $112,000,000 Our quarter end cash balance included marketable securities was $914,000,000 with liquidity of just over $1,200,000,000 As mentioned in our earnings release last night, to help manage the current economic uncertainty and its impact on our demand, we have adjusted our planned maintenance outage schedule and pulled up into the second quarter an outage that was scheduled for later in the year. This will result in a $0.16 per share increase in planned outage expenses for the second quarter versus the first quarter. The revised total company estimated cost impact for the year is now $1.22 per share versus $1.18 per share previously.

The actual impact in the first quarter was $0.23 per share and the revised estimated impact by quarter for the remainder of the year is now $0.39 per share in the second quarter, zero '1 '6 in the third and $0.44 per share in the fourth quarter. I'll now turn it back over to Mark.

Thank you, Bob. Looking ahead, as we move from the first and into the second quarter, as always, our attention will remain on what we can control. Our North American focus together with our balance sheet strength, well capitalized mills and plants, our commitment to strategic goals and our proven ability to respond quickly and effectively to external factors will serve us well during a period of economic uncertainty. We anticipate continued ambiguity relative to domestic and foreign tariff actions and their effect on global trade and our demand trends. Therefore, we've made certain assumptions in our guidance to recognize potential negative impacts to volume and costs from the uncertainty.

In the Packaging segment, we expect domestic prices to improve with continued implementation of our price increases, along with fairly flat export prices. Although we see box shipments improving, operating costs will be negatively impacted due to lower containerboard volume as we run our operations to match demand assumptions. Also, as Bob mentioned, adjustments to our planned maintenance outage schedule will result in a $0.16 per share increase in outage costs compared to the first quarter. In the Paper segment, implementation of the higher published price index prices from the first quarter will continue, although volume will be lower with the planned maintenance outage at our International Falls Minnesota mill. Rail contract rate increases at six of our mills during the first and second quarters will result in higher freight and logistics expenses and depreciation expense is assumed to be higher as well.

Considering these items, we expect the second quarter earnings of $2.41 per share. With that, we'd be happy to entertain any questions, but I must remind you that some of the statements we've made on the call constituted forward looking statements. The statements were based on current estimates, expectations and projections of the company and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including the direction of the economy and those identified as risk factors in our annual report on Form 10 ks on file with the SEC. The actual results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward looking statements. And with that, Jamie, I'd like to open the call to questions, please.

A question, please press and then one using a touch tone telephone. To withdraw your questions, you may press and 2. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up the handset prior to pressing the keys to ensure the best Our first question today comes from George Staphos from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for the details.

Good morning. Bob, Tom, good morning. You mentioned ambiguity, obviously, in the macro environment. And you mentioned that you'd made some change in how you're looking at your guidance and forecast. You laid out a couple of things.

Were there some other points that you wanted to delve into in terms of how you're adjusting, how you're looking at forecasting guiding for the year? And relatedly, what are the early bookings and billings for 2Q?

Everything we just talked about and the way we're looking at the quarter is based on, and I'll use the term caution that's being exercised by our customer base. A lot of our customers are looking at their business and everybody's being very prudent. And so therefore, on how the ordering is flowing through, everybody's just again being very cautious about how they present their business to the marketplace. So, again, across the board, our business is still robust, but it's just, again, I'm just going to use the word cautious. Tom, you want to talk about cut up for the

Yes, George. Our bookings and billings are up 4.1% starting out the quarter. We're starting out well at about what we expected. I think the caution relates to a number of different things. You've got, obviously, the tariffs and these sorts of things.

And you can listen to all the experts and talk about it, but there is no real expert in this arena right now, because there's attempting to do things that haven't been done for a long, long time. So I think there is some caution related around that. And also, this is happening at the same time, we're fully implementing a price increase. And in addition, the mix is changing somewhat in corrugated in total, because e comm continues to be a growth engine for corrugated and that's really related to the second half of the year, more so than the first half. So a lot of moving parts and that's what we're reflecting.

I'll one other thing, George. You have to also consider that and we mentioned last night that we exceeded our guidance because of better price realization in our packaging segment. That number the amount we exceeded that our internal guidance by was more than the $0.10 beat we had in the first quarter. So, said another way, that was something we thought we would get more likely in the second quarter. So that you have to consider that as well when you look at our second and first quarter together.

I see. I see. I appreciate that. That adds some good color. Relatedly, so you said that inventories are where you'd like them to be.

You're seeing an increase in box volumes, yet we're seeing containerboard production, I think you're implying coming lower 2Q versus 2Q. Help me understand if there are any missing parts in what I've just relayed and if not, why you're reducing production if your inventory is in good shape as your box volumes are going And I recognize things are pretty cautious out there overall, which you mentioned. And then lastly, you mentioned in fourth quarter reporting that you were anticipating a richer mix for 1Q. From our numbers, profit per ton produced was up a couple of bucks, which is fine from 4Q. Is that where you expected it?

Was it up or down versus expectations? Thank you, guys, and good luck in the quarter.

Let me talk to the first part there. As far as again, based on what we're seeing in the marketplace, as we've always done, we're running to our expected demand across the board what we see with our customer throughout North America. There because of some of the trade tariff debate going on, we have pulled back from a very small amount of

going specifically to China. And it was just and again, it's a very, very small amount. But but again, just as we've always done, we're running to our customer demand. That being said, we anticipate the month of May, we'll probably have two of our smaller machines down for the month unless something changes dramatically. And so that's how we're going to manage our inventory.

That has something to do with some of what we talked about with the cost impact on these outages. We're taking the mills down for their annual outage. We're pulling up the outage we referred to that we're pulling up from the latter part of the year is at Filer City, Michigan. That was planned for the fall and we're pulling that up to the month of May. But that will probably keep one of the small machines down for the extra number of weeks as we see the inventories and demand move around.

And so we're just we're we're being cautious in our own right on how we look at the world. And, but that's again, we we have that ability to move very quickly if we need to. There was another part of the question that you had there. Refresh me on what what was that second part?

don't remember really talking about richer mix in the in the first quarter because the first quarter is is just a pretty stable mix. And of course, you're not going to have a tremendous amount of graphics or anything like that in the first quarter. So the one couple of things that did impact us, though, in the first quarter that we haven't really even talked about, and that is we did have we did a more weather related closures than we would typically have in any winter. So that impactful. And then also in Southern Texas, the weather did impact the ag business down there to a large extent.

But I think also, what we're talking about when we talk about the mill outages and moving those up is because we do see the second half demand, being significantly higher than the first half. So, we see an opportunity to get that done. And so, it just makes good sense so we can run full out in the second half of the year.

Thank you, Tom. Makes good sense. I'll turn it over.

Our next question comes from Mike Rocsland from Truist. Please go ahead with your question.

Yes. Thank you, Mark, Bob and Tom for taking my questions and congrats on good results in top operating environment. In terms of just the $0.10 beat, can you just and you mentioned that the higher prices and mix in packaging, can you just provide a little more color with respect to your operations, was it something specific specifically that the way you ran your mills, it something with the contracts, where they were where price was able to flow through faster? Just want to get a sense of how you are able to beat your own expectations $0.10

Well, as I called out on my portion of the script, we operated exceptionally well, but we also moved our price increase through very, very effectively. Tom, do you want to comment?

Well, I just the only comment I would make is, is that we implemented the price increase exactly as we said we would in our announcements. And I think that's very important. So there was a larger portion, obviously, the price increase related to our outside sales of liner and medium, along with the non contract box price increase. And the rest of contractual box price increase will continue to be rolled through in the second quarter and will be completed by July. So that will have that normal ninety day cycle that we typically see.

Got it. I appreciate the color there, Tom. And then just following up on your comments on e commerce, you gained some share in e commerce, I believe. Obviously, it's continuing to flow through ops and some of it obviously maybe more traditional brown box type products as well. Can you just give us a sense some of those business wins that you had in e commerce, where they stand with respect to EBITDA margin and return on invested capital relative to your underlying business?

Is that the business that you picked up from e commerce vantage point, your 20% type EBITDA margins, call it, mid upper teens return on invested capital type business?

Well, Mike, I would say we picked up our volume growth is primarily a result of our existing customers, number one. Number two is we did add some additional outside customers. We don't typically target any particular segment. We target customers that we know will be around for the long haul and that we've done business with for decades. Now that said, e comm is the number one growing segment in corrugated.

And obviously, that becomes a larger segment for us as well since we do business with the e comm providers. And are the margins better or worse, whatever? No. The margins are what they are. And we make we don't take on business just for the sake of taking on volume.

I think we've said that many, many times. We have a business to run. Our customers have a business to run, and we both expect to be able to make good returns in our businesses. So we've done a lot of things in our mills that we've talked about in terms of customizing our boards for different industries and different demands. And so I think that a lot of there's been discussion about, let's say, as an example, well, price doesn't seem to move as much for certain industries or the mix is getting more towards brown than it is towards graphics, things like that.

Well, that's really just a result of what's happening in the marketplace. If e comm is growing, that means big box is probably going the other way, which also means there's less graphics and displays and things like that and some of that other, what you'd call, richer mix. We're just adapting to whatever the marketplace is. And that's demonstrated also in what we've talked about, what we're doing in the second quarter.

Our next question comes from Gabe Hide from Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Tom, I want to challenge maybe a little bit of what you said. I mean, two of the other competitors in the marketplace are talking about value over volume and trying to extract more from customers. Maybe, I don't know if they're talking about retail ready packaging or figuring out ways to upsell customers, maybe wow them when they get that package on their porch and the opening experience and things like that. I'm just curious if you all are seeing that as you talk to your sales force across the different channels, those types of opportunities, or if you've seen any change in behavior, or if there's anything that you're seeing when you're going out for RFPs, things like that.

Well, Gabe, I think some of that's a little bit of gee whiz, if you ask me. But what we see we lead in this area, in my opinion, to offer our customers the very best value and the very best options that they may use the box for. And that's what makes the box very unique is that we can it can advertise, it can protect, it can do all these other sorts of things. And it's the greatest probably the greatest product in the history of mankind from a sustainability and recyclability standpoint, too. But, you know, so so our customers are very sensitive to those sorts of things.

They want they want us to bring the innovation and and the ideas to them, which is what we do always. So I'm not you know, I I I don't want you to misinterpret what I'm saying that, you know, that PCA is headed towards nothing but brown because that couldn't be further from the truth. But at the same time, we accept the realities of what's happening in the marketplace.

Okay. In the press release, you mentioned some rail increases. I know those are typically timed around April 1, the day before Liberation Day. I'm just curious, it sounds like there were some increases that from a contractual standpoint that were put through, if you're willing to comment that there are more or less than what you were anticipating. And then if I could slip one other one in, I think you talked about CapEx at 01/1948.

The guide, I want to say from memory was August to August tracking a little bit below if we were to annualize it. I know things are lumpy. Just curious if that August to eight 70 number is still what you're tracking towards. Thank you.

Yes. On the CapEx, we're still tracking on that $800,000,000 level of spending. We broke ground on the new plant in Ohio back in February. So that's well underway, and we've got some other big projects going on. One big project at one of our mills and then just the numerous projects reconfiguring a couple of the other box plants on the East Coast.

So, there's a lot of good activity happening there on the capital side.

Yes. And on the rail increases, Gabe, we had, I think, three in the first quarter. So you'll get a full quarter's worth of those in the second quarter. They happened around midway or a couple of early March. And then we had three additional that will take place in the second quarter.

So what drove our comment around freight.

Our next question comes from Mark Weintraub from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. Good morning. A few follow ups. First off, on the sequential pricing, which as you know was very strong. Can you share kind of roughly speaking how much of your box business is non contract and or has that share increased meaningfully over time?

Our non contract is about 3070% on contract. And that's been pretty consistent for years.

Okay. So I guess just can you help us a little bit more in explaining kind of how you are able to enable to get as much as you got in the first quarter. And I think you noted it was better than you had expected too. And so I'm just sort of trying to understand what you'd be able to do. Was that because you were also recouping kind of inflation outside of just the price increases in some of your negotiations or any more color you could help provide?

Let's just put it this way. We announced whether the publications picked it up or not, we made an announcement online or board a medium as to what we were going to do in terms of raising price, which we did. That's one. Another factor is what we've done in the non contractual area and we got that through in very quick fashion. So that prompt from a timing standpoint, was better.

And although we're although we've expressed some disappointment in terms of the amount of the contractual side that's tied to the publications, that's rolling through in its normal cycle over a ninety day period, like I said. So the majority of that will be recouped in the second quarter and then some into even the month of July.

Okay. Thank you. And then second, you mentioned you expected volumes to be significantly higher in the second half than the first half. Maybe a bit more color there. Are there customer wins that are part of that equation or is that largely a macro view?

That's more of macro view, but furthermore, in addition, I mean, coming on. As I mentioned, we don't build these facilities like the Glendale, Arizona facility. We don't build these things and then hope the customers will come. I mean, we've got them lined up and we built it because they have the demand for it. And of course, that plant will be ramping up and will be it's doing incredibly well starting out.

And I've got to call out all of our engineering and technical staff as well as our plant staff and leadership teams. They've just done an unbelievable job. And I'm very proud of the fact that we can start up a plant literally with no hiccups and just ahead of schedule, below cost and be fully operational like that. But we'll build into that plant as an example. And furthermore, just on a macro basis, the mix continues to be a little more second half loaded than steady year round, which is not unusual for our mix, by the way.

But it's just as we've gotten bigger, I mean, it becomes a little more impactful.

Gotcha. And then just, at the last quarter's call, talked about big cost increases, 1Q versus 4Q. You'd indicated that you'd probably Bob, I think you'd indicated you'd probably get close to half of that back in the second quarter. I recognize you've layered in a whole bunch of other factors too, but is that still conceptually true that about half of the types of costs that you were seeing in 1Q before Q would be cooped in 2Q?

Yes, Mark. I'd say that is correct. But as you also mentioned, the other things that we talked about relative to running our mills according to demand and pulling the outage an outage into the second quarter and those types of things. Obviously, overshadowed that improvement you would have seen otherwise.

Understood. And then lastly, just so you mentioned changes in the marketplace, e commerce being a bigger part of the market. What implications does that have on your kind of views about light weighting? And, how important it is to increase that capability as that part of the market grows faster?

Well, Mark, think as I've mentioned in the past and I think it's a competitive advantage we have, and that is that the investments that we have made in the mills, the investments we've made in the box plants, what we've done in the marketplace, I mean, we are literally tailoring everything to what meets the needs and the demands of our customers. So the answer the short answer is yes. I mean, a lot of light weighting has taken place, not only with PCA, but in the entire industry. And that's why I think that, as I've said before, when you use tons now as a measuring stick and if you don't make the adjustments for light weighting, think you can begin to fool yourself as to what to expect because, know, this you just can't lightweight for the sake of lightweighting and you can't just continue to run heavyweight board if that's not going to fit the demands of the customer. So this is all very, very customer driven, and we've been on the cutting edge of this for quite some time and are very, very happy with the position we're in.

And we measure what we sell, which is MSF, and that's really important to really understanding what's changing in the marketplace and what your margins really look like.

Great. You know, thing one thing I was thinking about with the new Jackson number three machine running, that one machine, and we'll have to calculate, but probably that one machine now is making more square feet of board than if you went back fifteen years ago, than counts and Valdosta used to run combined with with the the machines that they had. And so it's just a testament that, again, we we've gone significantly into, taking advantage of the marketplace, and, the lightweights have, have been very beneficial for us. But machines also like Jackson have enabled us to

Well, I think one other thing I'll add to that, Mark, is that we have to be we have to have performance. And that's the technology that is is, I think, you know, unique to PCA that we've been able to really, lightweight and get tremendous performance out of our out of our boards. And we've spent a lot of capital to be able to do that.

Appreciate all the color. And Bob, I'm not sure if your plan is to be on next quarter's call. If not, thank you for all your help. If you are, chat next time around.

Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it. Next question, please.

Our next question comes from Anthony Pettinari from Citi. Please go ahead with your question.

Packaging Corp. of America (PKG) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Company Participants